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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29512380">Escape From All Who Follow You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/midge1/pseuds/midge1'>midge1</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Minecraft (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blaze Hybrid Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Cara | CaptainPuffy is Clay | Dream's Parent, Creeper Hybrid Sam | Awesamdude, Demon Darryl Noveschosch, Enderman Hybrid Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Implied/Referenced Torture, Imprisonment, Isolation, Karl Jacobs-centric, Other, Pandora's Vault, Piglin Hybrid Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Sheep Hybrid Cara | CaptainPuffy, Technoblade Hears Voices (Video Blogging RPF), Time Travel, Time Travelling Karl Jacobs, Villain Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Winged Alexis | Quackity, Winged Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Wither Hybrid Eret (Video Blogging RPF), everyone has a bad time, literally just</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 02:53:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,568</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29512380</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/midge1/pseuds/midge1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>there are dire consequences to traveling back within your own time, but karl will do whatever he can to save the ones he cares about</p><p>(tw imprisonment, isolation, trauma &amp; other stuff i'm not sure about yet but will add when i can)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Wilbur Soot &amp; Technoblade &amp; TommyInnit &amp; Phil Watson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>128</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. a group of travelers in the snow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28589229">Dollhouse</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacy_Star/pseuds/Lacy_Star">Lacy_Star</a>.
        </li>

    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>   The group of weary travelers stumbled along in the snow. They shivered as the freezing gusts cut through their meager protection from the wind. Having just emerged from a desert biome, they had not expected to encounter an area of tundra, let alone one that started snowing halfway through their trek.</p><p>   “Leon, please, we can’t keep going on like this.” The youngest of the group, Ariadne, broke the silence. “This snow isn’t going to stop anytime soon. We need to find shelter.” The one leading their trudge forward frowned.</p><p>   “They’re still coming after us. We can’t afford to stop now. I doubt a measly blizzard would slow them down, so neither can we.” Her face twisted and she went silent once more. The third of the group spoke suddenly.</p><p>   “She is right, y’know. Not everyone is a nether hybrid like you. We can’t survive this cold like you can. Hell, I’m pretty sure Karl is a human!” They gestured to the violently shaking person who was bringing up the rear. “We need to stop somewhere, and soon.” The frown turned into a scowl.</p><p>   “Well where the hell are we supposed to go then Sterling? If you haven’t noticed, <i>there is nothing here.”</i> He gestured all around them. “If anyone has any suggestions feel free to share. Otherwise, we keep going.” Their boots crunched loudly in the snow. A quieter voice finally piped up.</p><p>   “I don’t know if I saw right, but I think we might have just passed an igloo not too long ago. I wasn’t sure whether or not my eyes were playing tricks on me. But now it might be our only shot.” The three spun to look at the colorfully dressed human with his teeth chattering. He looked ready to pass out.</p><p>   “And you didn’t mention this why?!” Leon’s voice made him flinch back. Ariadne glared at the nether hybrid before falling back and helping the newcomer along.</p><p>   “You can’t really blame him, he’s obviously much colder than us right now, surrounded by hybrid strangers, in the middle of a blizzard while we argue about how fast we are going to die.” Sterling nodded in agreement.</p><p>   “Yeah, listen to the spider lady. Let’s try and go find that igloo he spotted. Might just save us after all.” Leon glared with glowing eyes at his silver-tinted traveling companion before turning to follow the two who had already started back in the direction from where they came. They huffed and followed after the hothead with the corner of their mouth twitching.</p><p>   The igloo Karl had miraculously spotted did not take much longer to rediscover. The four of them stumbled their way into the small space. Only an empty chest and a long since burnt out torch remained from whatever it used to be.</p><p>   Accidentally squashed into a corner, Karl managed to find a trapdoor that none of them would have noticed. They all agreed on going down but only Sterling would go first. They huffed with laughter and clambered down the ladder with only a small moment of hesitation. A surprised shout from down below had them all scrambling after.</p><p>   It seemed to have been a place for preparing for long voyages, mapmaking materials and spare items scattered around everywhere. Two cells with iron bars swung open stood ominously on the back wall. Most peculiar of all was the stone staircase that descended even further into the darkness.</p><p>   “You think we should see what’s down there?” Ariadne asked with a hint of excitement in her voice. She had never been one for trepidation about dark, enclosed spaces. Leon shrugged moodily.</p><p>   “I dunno, is our new friend the <i>human</i> okay with it? Because that seems like it’s the only thing that matters to you anymore.” Sterling rolled their eyes and playfully hit him on the shoulder before again leading the rest down into the darkness.</p><p>   They emerged into an eerily familiar stone room. The bricks were a bit mossy, which was strange for how far they were underground, especially in the tundra. But most importantly was the centerpiece of the room. It was a table, but the edges of it-what was that?</p><p>   The place felt so familiar yet so alien at the same time. The other three filed in behind them as they stared at one of the chairs in shock. This was not the purpose of this room, it was wrong. Almost like someone had come in and stripped it bare before replacing everything backwards. Their hybrid instincts screamed to run and hide, but they stood stick-still.</p><p>   The sign hanging on the wall was not in a language any of them could understand. That’s what they all told eachother, at least. The others did not see when the shivering boy in the damp hoodie muttered a Latin motto to himself under his breath. There was a resentful look on his face.</p><p>   They spread around the room, studying the armor racks and half-full chests of supplies. It looked as if all of the occupants had left in a hurry. There wasn’t anything valuable that remained.</p><p>   They moved onto the hallway which had been lined with torches. The coal in them had long since been spent, and the group could hear the telltale sounds of mobs echoing throughout the strange base. Swords were drawn as the torches were relit. They continued venturing down the hallway before they ventured upon a strange room.</p><p>   There were pillars of water seemingly set into the wall, and soulsand lined the bottom of them. Bubbles rose up from the cursed soil in a steady stream. Levers were set into the walls next to each one.</p><p>   The strangest thing of all was the strange green orbs bobbing at the surface of the water of most of the pillars. There were about a half dozen in total, but only four had the strange bobbing orbs.</p><p>   The three hybrids exchanged a perplexed look. What had they managed to stumble into? Some sort of ancient abandoned sanctuary? But that wouldn’t make sense-there was barely any dust, and the small amount of bread they had managed to find had been only stale, not completely wasted away. If this place had been abandoned in a hurry, it couldn’t have been more than a couple months before then. Probably even less.</p><p>   But the human in the hoodie was having no such thoughts about how long the place had been empty for. He already knew how long it had been. (Roughly, of course) There were practically stars in his eyes as he flitted from each pillar to the next. He seemed almost hesitant to touch them, as if afraid they weren’t real. He wrung his hands in frantic excitement as a grin split his face. </p><p>   “Hey, kid, what the hell is going on? Did you want to lead us here or something?” Leon’s grumpy accusations had the grin dropping off Karl’s face as he spun around to the group of three hybrids that were staring at him. He spared a glance at his watch before looking back up at them with impatience in his eyes.</p><p>   “Not a kid, dude. And I just saved you from your eventual deaths. If you wait it out here for a couple more days, the blizzard will take care of the Crimson and you can go on to live your lives.” His voice dropped to a dull tone, unfamiliar to the fragile boy they thought they had all figured out just a moment ago. Now none of them were quite so sure. Karl turned back around and placed his hand on the nearest lever.</p><p>   “That might not be such a good idea-” A protest from one of them was cut off by the click of redstone as the lever was pulled. The connected trapdoor was triggered and it hit the water with a small splash. It also managed to break the strange orb.</p><p>   Purple particles hovered in the air for a split second as space seemed to twist and then there was suddenly a person floating in the water. They seemed to have been sleeping before being shocked awake by the teleport. And suddenly being suspended in a tank of water.</p><p>   Reacting on impulse, Karl grabbed a pickaxe from his belt and shattered the glass in an instant. He managed to catch the person who collapsed towards him and lowered them to the floor slowly. Their large gray wings made it a bit difficult, but he managed. He avoided looking at their face in fear of what he might see.</p><p>   He quickly got up before flicking the three remaining switches and catching their remaining passengers one at a time. He could recognize the parental sheep hybrid anywhere as he carefully lowered her to the floor. He was less familiar with the gangly half-enderman.</p><p>   The final person he managed to catch was the one he dreaded the most. He leaned the piglin hybrid up against the wall and examined at his face urgently. There were no new major scars, or faint red veins under his skin. They were safe for now.</p><p>   He risked a glance over his shoulder at the doorway behind him. There was no one there, and he was glad. The conversation he was to have was private. But he hoped they would stick around to nurse the few prisoners he could rescue back to health. He spun back to face the drowsy hybrid in front of him.</p><p>   “Techno-Techno please, tell me, are they ok?!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>someone thought up this idea in a server that i am in and now i cannot stop thinking about it even though it just turned into my brainrot of every single thing i love about the dream smp-listing this as incomplete because hopefully i will be able to write further chapters but that is very much just a hope-kudos and comments always appreciated (also i know this chapter relied heavily on ocs i promise it will not be like that in the future)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. the two people he cared about most in the world</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>karl and techno have a little *talk*</p><p>(hey i'm adding tw tags be careful there's discussion of torture in here)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>   Technoblade groaned as he shifted to move upright. His eyesight blurred as a face hovered in front of him. Distorted words echoed in his ears almost as if he was sitting at the bottom of a well and the person was shouting down to him. The urgency in their voice had him snapping to attention. </p><p>    “Can you hear me? Techno? Please? Are you alright-what happened? What changed while I was gone?” His vision finally cleared and focused on the person in front of him. The time traveler had grown frantic the longer his silence stretched on. He shifted again and wrapped his arms around himself in an attempt to feel secure before he started to speak. </p><p>    “After you disappeared, he was furious. Each of us was questioned one by one. We knew his promise of no harm coming to us was bullshit from the beginnin’, but I didn’t expect just how far he was willin’ to go.” The once-imposing Blood God shivered and fidgeted with the cuffs of the soaking wet dress shirt he still wore after all this time. </p><p>    “Our attachments-he knew all of our attachments so well. All our strengths and weaknesses. Everyone had their own special kind of torture.” He let out a small chuckle. </p><p>    “Heh, I guess, in the end, I was my own downfall. Bein’ stuck in a small box with a chorus of bloodthirsty voices doesn’t exactly preserve your mind. Still wouln’ give ‘im any answers.” He smiled wryly before continuing on. </p><p>    “Only reason ‘m anywhere near coherent now is ‘cause they’ve gone silent for some reason. I don’-I don’ know why yet, but ‘m sure we’ll be findin’ out eventually.” Karl’s eyes widened in horror. </p><p>   He hadn’t expected anything like that to happen once he had left. But of course, he had been gone for all those months in this timeline. It was only logical. Another loose thread he would have to stitch back in. But first he just had to know-</p><p>    “What about everyone else, what happened to them?” He asked shakily. He dreaded the answers he was to get. The former prisoner grimaced. </p><p>    “You sure you wanna know, kid? It’s not exactly the prettiest picture to be paintin’.” The stubborn look set onto his face was the former prisoner’s only answer. He sighed in resignation. </p><p>    “I’ll tell you all I know, which isn’ too much. Most of this will be unreliable. Stuff that from some, well, <i>unreliable sources.”</i> The emphasis on his last words did not go unnoticed. He turned to the others who had teleported to the base along with him. They were all propped up on walls, just the same as him. He gestured to the sheep hybrid first with a mournful look on his face. </p><p>    “Puffy’s one of the most carin’ people you’ll ever meet. She would stick her neck out for anyone she considered family, but if you wronged them in any way, she would be after you in an instant. Dr-the bastard, he took advantage of that. I think they knew eachother years ago. Had a strong connection once upon a time. All I know is that she stopped cryin’ every night about a month in.” Karl bowed his head and gestured for Techno to continue on. The hybrid cast his eyes to the gangly part-enderman next. </p><p>    “I don’t know much about Ranboo’s stay either. He seemed especially scared of that asshole, and I can’t blame the kid. But there was always somethin’ a bit fishy about how they both acted, even before the imprisonment. But that’s only hopeless wonderin’. Won’ do us any good now. Only other thing I can think of is how strange it is how the water he is soaked in isn’ burnin’ him right now. Almost like his tolerance has had to go up these past couple months.” Karl’s eyes darted over to the tall teen with worry. Techno finally cast his eyes to the figure slumped against the farthest wall with something akin to hesitation. Their wings seemed to be in a very disheveled state. </p><p>    “I heard, just, way too much about Phil. Things I didn’t want to hear. About how his wings have been chained for months. How every day, the bitch-faced motherfucker would walk by his cell. To taunt him. Remind him of his mistakes. Torment him in a way that he knew would tear him apart inside. Phil, wonderful, stubborn Phil-I don’ even know if he will be anythin’ like he was before. I don’t think any of us will.” His grim words echoed throughout the still fortress. Karl’s hands wrung at his sides. He wanted to ask a question, the question Techno was waiting for, but he was scared of the answer he might get. The nether hybrid continued on when there was no prompting evident. </p><p>    “I only know snatches about the rest. Niki, she’s slowly starvin’. Jack is surrounded by blank walls. Fundy is stuck in a neverendin’ spiral from the people who have turned their backs on him. Tommy, Tubbo, those two-” His voice cracked. He paused before moving on as if nothing happened. </p><p>    “Ghostbur is locked away. No one knows where. He thinks everyone has forgotten about him, again. Eret is a wreck. They’ve been stripped of everythin’. You know my opinions on governments, on kings, but I can only feel bad for everythin’ I hear she’s been put through. Hbomb managed to make it far, far away. But there are those still after him. And of course, in the most secure cell, is his greatness’s most favorite person. The one he wants to keep safe from the crimson.” His hands clenched into tight fists. </p><p>    “The voices tell me things, Karl. They tell me what has been going on in the rest of the server. How Bad and Antfrost and Punz are complete pawns of that stupid fuckin’ egg. How Ponk is being influenced more every day. That the last kid we’ve got, Purpled, is slowly bein’ entangled into its plot too. And Sam, stoic Sam, how he’s been corrupted by the egg to the point where he’s been banned from his own prison. How Dream still just wants to ‘keep us all safe.’ How hope shrinks more and more every day.” Techno’s voice had gotten quieter the longer he talked. Karl’s shoulders felt heavy with dread. He knew it was no mistake that the two he had wanted to know about most hadn’t held even a passing mention. The former prisoner turned back towards the one who had freed him with a jaded look in his eyes. </p><p>    “And from the moment the time traveler winked out of existence, the puppeteer of it all snatched the two people he knew they cared about most in the world in an instant. The two were dragged out of the prison within the hour. No one has seen them since.” Karl slumped against the wall with a wounded cry. His face crumpled with despair. The newcomer hunched his shoulders and curled his arms around himself once more. </p><p>    “I’m sure there is a Sun Tzu quote about this somewhere. If only I could remember it-no that isn’t right-why can’t I remember?-I should be able to remember this-what is happening-what am I supposed to do now?” Both could do nothing to help the other no matter how much they wanted to. </p><p>   His memory had held up for this long, enough to ensure he did what he was supposed to, and Karl could feel it fading. He could feel himself being bleached back into the state of forced apathy he hated more than anything else in the world. </p><p>   Technoblade sat panicking, his head way too empty without a chorus of voices shouting at him for blood and violence. How screwed up was that, so used to them that he was now lost when they were gone? What was he supposed to think? To feel? He had no idea. </p><p>   The group of travelers peered through the doorway curiously. They were quite surprised to see three limp and waterlogged hybrids slumped against walls with their newest acquaintance curled up in a ball across to the room next to a fourth. The farthest two looked at least slightly more awake. </p><p>   Springing into action, the three managed to carry the newcomers to a spare room with supplies and some spare beds that they had found. They patched up what burns they could on the enderman hybrid, and winced at the state of the poor elytrian’s wings.  </p><p>   But there was nothing else any of them could do but wait. Wait until their acquaintance emerged to explain. Wait until the blizzard outside had petered out. Wait until the faint cries of a heartbroken lover and a warrior who has lost all hope had died down enough to pretend they never heard anything in the first place. But it might be a long while until then. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>i'm sorry i really can't say this is great quality but i did it! i got a second chapter out! i am ridiculously happy about that and i hope it isn't too horrible-kudos and comments always appreciated &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. the choices you make have devastating consequences</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>what if everything wasn't quite as it was supposed to be in the inbetween?</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>   Karl appeared suddenly in the blank room he always did. The white marble walls stretched up around him in a way that made the back of his neck prickle. He could feel a thousand eyes and no one within an entire universe all around him at the same time. A wither rose was set on a singular stand in front of him. </p><p>   The faint particles flaking off were mesmerizing to watch. They warned any who neared it of their power. The effect of withering that would damage all who touched it. The potential for devastation it held within its petals. Yet here it was, in this pristine castle. One could only wonder-</p><p>   His thought process was interrupted by a low rumbling from somewhere deep in the castle. He blinked back into awareness with his hand hovering far too close to the rose for comfort. The expansive walls seemed to almost bear down on him. He shivered and left as quick as he could out of the foreboding room he always arrived in. </p><p>   He didn’t notice the columns in the hallways were carved with twisting vines as they blurred together when he rushed past. Every once in a while he could catch a snatch of outside through the rare window. The views were mostly either void or courtyard, but he chose to continue on rather than stopping to look. </p><p>   He lost count of the number of spiral staircases he had to stumble down on his way to follow the ominous rumble he had heard earlier. It was the only lead that remained. The books that used to be scattered all across the castle seemed to have vanished. The occasional bleached tree he managed to spot through the windows he dragged himself past put him even more on edge. </p><p>   He eventually was able to make it through the final staircase after some amount of time. He couldn’t really say how long he had been there for. It was the Inbetween after all. Time bent to the will of it, not the other way around. </p><p>   The room shook around him as the rage of a thousand suns permeated the room. The very air seemed to vibrate. The Inbetween never communicated via the unreliable mortal method of language. Instead it spoke through intense bouts of emotions and understanding that extended far beyond this realm. </p><p>   The only thing Karl could feel was pure malevolence. The castle itself was furious with him. The walls hummed with resentment. The vibrating air buzzed against his skin. The floor shook with that horrible grinding sound once more. </p><p>    <i>Are you happy with yourself?</i> It seemed to say. <i>Do you even know what you have done? Who you have doomed? </i> Karl froze. He knew what it was referring to, of course, but he refused to waver about anything just yet.</p><p>    <i>The changes that you have made will have devastating consequences. Far beyond anything you could ever expect.</i> Faint copies of himself appeared suddenly in the smallish room. They didn’t seem to recognize him, or eachother. They just continued to move along by themselves in their own times, completing the tasks that need finishing. </p><p>    <i>Do you understand how you have doomed them all?</i> Each individual Karl stopped dead still at once. They all stood there, glitching, frozen in time for what felt like an eternity and an instant all at once. Then they all suddenly started to dissolve into red flakes of dust. It swirled anout as if there was a gentle breeze before settling onto the floor. The castle spoke to him through the oppressive emotions one final time. </p><p>   <i>You will live to see the error of your ways, and only then should you fall.</i> The marble walls cracked to reveal angry red vines within them. They were the support beams, what kept the castle standing and functioning. The ground underneath him split open and he started to fall. Fall through the empty void of space, towards everything and nothing. Only the pulsing of an angry red star surrounded him. </p><p>   He could feel a rough grip on his arm and he reached to yank it off. To his dawning horror, it wouldn’t go away. He looked to see a bloodvine tightening around his bicep. He opened his mouth in a silent scream of terror while he continued his long fall into the void as it tore away at his mind. </p><p>---</p><p>   He woke up with a gasping breath on cold stone floor. He could faintly hear the dripping of water from somewhere far off. The pressure on his arm still remained. He jumped upwards frantically with a hoarse shout, blindly swatting at anything that came close. </p><p>   Eventually the sounds that he before had managed to tune out formed into words, and it was just Ariadne, trying to calm him down. He had fallen asleep and had a horrible dream. That was it. </p><p>   But that didn’t make any sense. He had gone to the Inbetween, he could feel it in the shakiness of his mind in a way that only it could do. He should’ve reappeared in his cell from where he left really not all that long ago. He should’ve gone back. He needed to go back. If he went back, things would revert back to normal. To how they were supposed to be. </p><p>   He pushed his palms against closed eyes in an attempt to quell his growing headache. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be stuck in the future. Was it true? Was the castle that lived outside of the boundaries of time and space built on evil after all? Just how much had he messed the timeline up? </p><p>   From what he could figure, he had been sent to the future to meet Leon, Ariadne, and Sterling for a reason. He had thought that reason was to attempt to break out the tentative allies he had made. Maybe they were supposed to die out in that blizzard after all. Maybe the Crimson was supposed to catch them. Maybe he had screwed everything up beyond repair. Maybe he had doomed his fiancés to an unknown fate by trying to save the others. </p><p>   He was snapped back into reality as the hybrid in front of him placed some bread in his hands and gestured for him to eat it. He smiled gratefully and she seemed satisfied as she turned back to whatever she was doing before. Karl’s eyes glazed over as he lost himself in his thoughts once more. </p><p>   If that hadn’t been a dream, if he had really visited the Inbetween for the last time, if it had actually fallen apart around him as it sent him back to the time when he was not supposed to be-he didn’t know what to think. Had it been like that from the beginning? Had he accidentally managed to infect it at some point? It tore his whole worldview to shreds. </p><p>   Upholding the timeline, keeping the right events happening, he had never known what the End was going to look like. If it ever was going to. Every event he had modified he had done for the greater good. An attempt to make lives better for all. Or so he thought. </p><p>   Had it really been for the good of the people? Or had the Inbetween, the Egg, been sending him to make its conquering easier. Maybe the first time he had managed to stop Wilbur from blowing up Manberg it wasn’t to save the lives of the innocent. Maybe the egg would’ve been in danger. Maybe he had been sent to save its past self. </p><p>   All the times he had been sent, he thought he had been helping people. He only did it because he thought he was helping people. He hated doing it. Hated the apathy, the lost time. Hated the memory loss that made him slowly drift away from his beloved fiancés. But he supposed it didn’t matter now. He had managed to doom them to a much worse fate than just losing him when he tried to save everyone. </p><p>   He buried his head in his hands with a frustrated groan. He had twisted his thoughts around enough to give himself a killer headache. How was he supposed to go on? How could he even help anymore? If the Inbetween was gone, so was his usefulness. Some great rescuer he was. </p><p>   He checked the bizarre watch that remained on his wrist for some reason. Half a dozen hands spun pointing in seemingly random directions on the clock face. They ticked by and stood still in an incomprehensible pattern. </p><p>   The two symbols engraved in the rim of the watch practically overlapped in their closeness. They represented the two he had fought wars and traveled through time again and again for, and he was just glad they were together. There was nothing else he could think about without the immense feeling of despair threatening to crush him. So he fiddled with his strange watch, a fragile smile on his face, and tried not to think of all the implications just one dream had on everything. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>i am somehow writing things and it is exciting! here's to hoping i'll be able to keep this up and fir everything that i want in here-thanks so much for reading!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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